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SafeAuto is stepping outside of family for the first time in choosing its new leader.

The insurer announced yesterday that it has hired Ron Davies, a former senior vice president for
Allstate, as its new CEO. Davies, 47, starts his new job on Aug. 13.

The company specializes in selling state-minimum insurance coverage to drivers in 16 states.
SafeAuto was founded in Columbus in 1993 by Ari Deshe and Jon Diamond, who are married to daughters
of Jerome and Geraldine Schotteinstein.The company has annual revenue of $300 million and about
1,000 workers.

Davies’ hiring will allow Deshe and Diamond to step back from the day-to-day management of the
company. They will become chairmen of the company’s board of directors.

“The team is ready and primed to keep going,” Davies said. “I really look forward to getting in
and trying to help.”

Davies brings a range of experience to SafeAuto, having also worked at Progressive and specialty
catastrophe insurance company ICAT Holdings, along with non-insurance companies Kimberly-Clark and
Security Capital Group, a real-estate company. He has been involved in startups and has worked at
large companies.

“I bring some different experiences to the SafeAuto team,” he said.

He said he has been talking with Deshe and Diamond about the position for several months as they
began thinking about a leadership transition.

Davies is joining the company at a time when many of its customers are under financial stress
because of the struggling economy. The company’s customers are focused on price and value, he
said.

“These customers are some of the hard-pressed when it comes to disposable income,” he said. “
They’re making tough choices.”

The focus early on will be to learn more about the company and then find ways to challenge the
employees to take the company beyond its current level, he said.

“They’ve grown the company spectacularly over the last 19 years,” Davies said of Deshe and
Diamond.